SARASOTA, Fla. — On any return flight to Baltimore from one of the myriad road trips the Orioles made over the last three years, the talk among hitters would eventually center on one large topic. They knew, when they next stepped onto the field, the left field wall at Camden Yards would be waiting for them.

When the Orioles decided this offseason to move the left field wall closer to home plate once more — creating a middle-ground distance that isn’t as short as the old wall but shorter than the demoralizing monstrosity called Walltimore — hitters were pleased. Much of the attention was paid to right-handed batters, such as Ryan Mountcastle, because Mountcastle lost 11 would-be home runs because of the fence.

But don’t discount the impact a shorter wall will have on Baltimore’s left-handed hitters. On those flights home, first baseman Ryan O’Hearn recalled, the lefties would discuss how they’d have to change their fastball timing.

“When we would go home, you’d have to kind of recalibrate and aim, or at least think, left-center bullpen and over [to right],” O’Hearn said. “Any ball in the air, it didn’t matter how good you hit it, it didn’t seem like anything good was going to happen.”

The trickle-down effect that such a nihilistic viewpoint of what an opposite-field hit would bring was severe. Batters sped up their fastball timing, which in turn left them far out ahead of offspeed pitches. They got away from an approach that has led them to this point in their baseball lives. They bemoaned the hits taken away — from bloop singles to home runs.

In all, although the shorter left field wall may lead to greater power numbers for pull-side righties such as Mountcastle, the left-handed hitters have as much to gain from a more friendly dimension.

“For me, it just opens you up to drive the ball to left field and have success with it,” O’Hearn said. “We’d go on the road and I’d hit some balls to left field, get rewarded for it, and then come home and hit the same ball and it’s an out. I think that will be the main thing for me. It’ll free you up to hit the ball all over the yard.”

In November, general manager Mike Elias announced the team’s plans to create a more neutral left field wall. The decision to move the wall deeper in 2022 was to correct what had become a homer-happy park, but Elias acknowledged they “overcorrected” initially.

In certain places, the wall will shift as many as 20 feet closer to home plate. The height, from hulking to manageable, will decline by 5 feet in left field and just over 6 feet in left-center field.

The changes may not benefit only power hitters, though. Center fielder Cedric Mullins, who was quick to note that he’s not an oppo-homer type, said the shorter wall could bring back more left-field singles to his game.

The thought sounds counterintuitive, considering there will be less grass for a left fielder to cover. But, as Mullins explained, the most athletic left fielders could play closer to the infield with the old wall because they would have the space required to sprint full speed on a ball over their heads.

“I was telling guys with any sort of speed: You can take away the lefty single and you can run the football field’s distance to get to where you need to be to catch it if it’s over your head,” Mullins said. “And that’s kind of how it played out. … If you trust your ability to go back, you can take the single away, because you have room to go back. You can sprint for a long time.”

Outfielder Colton Cowser is an apt example of how a change in fastball approach can alter his performance. Cowser said his fastball timing at Camden Yards moved from left-center to right-center, “which makes you more susceptible to the other stuff moving away from you,” he said.

In the minors, however, Cowser was adept at hitting to the opposite field. At Triple-A Norfolk in 2023, 37.2% of his contact went to left field. That dropped to 24.8% in 2024, his first full year in the majors.

There are multiple reasons for the decline — for instance, Cowser learned to rotate more through his swing, allowing him to find pull-side power — but he also was out in front of most pitches last year because of a reluctance to knock one to the black hole left field had become.

“That’s something I think I used to do really well, and then I sometimes felt I couldn’t get rewarded that way,” Cowser said.

As a result, Cowser struggled against changeups especially. They come out looking like a fastball but wind up slower, and Cowser hit .188 against them. He swung through 43.2% of his offers on that pitch variety. So this spring Cowser is “trying to back that fastball timing up” so he can better react to offspeed pitches.

For the most part, right-handed hitters (and switch hitters batting from the right) felt the impact of a deeper wall most. Mountcastle (11), Austin Hays (8), Jorge Mateo (7), Anthony Santander (7) and Adley Rutschman (7) all lost homers.

But so did O’Hearn, with three would-be homers taken away. Gunnar Henderson lost two and Cowser one. More than the lost homers is the overall approach at the plate. No more will left-handed hitters feel as though to hit the ball the opposite way is to hit into a guaranteed out.

“It’s definitely a game changer,” O’Hearn said. “It opens you up to adjust your direction on the field, and that opens you up to stay on breaking balls better to right field as well.”